fixed for the conveniency of the Governor of Upper Canada's Lady visiting the Falls. From Mrs. Simcoe's Ladder to the foot of the Falls, is one mile, which I was one hour in traversing, owing to the masses of rock I had to scramble over. My first attempt was to get under the arch of the Fall, which at the first view promised me as much success as I had met with at the Falls of the Genesee. Vain, however, was my every effort to get under the arch of the Cataract having heard of the success of others, I did not easily relinquish the attempt. 1 felt myself full as collected and more determined than when I undertook to go under the Falls of the Genesee, which is no inconsiderable River. Success here appeared to me physically impossible: the air rushed from under the arch with so much violence, that I with difficulty kept my feet; and so loaded was

"comes pouring down so closely to you from the top of the stu"pendous precipice, and by the thundering sound of the billows "dashing against the rocky sides of the caverns below; you " tremble with reverential fear, when you consider that a blast of "the whirlwind might sweep you from off the slippery rocks on "which you stand, and precipitate you into the dreadful gulph "beneath, from whence all the power of man could not extricate "you; you feel what an insignificant being you are in the “Création, and your mind is forcibly impressed with an awful "idea of the power of that mighty BEING who commanded the "waters to flow."-Weld's Travels in America during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. London, 3d Edit. 8vo. 2 vols. 1800.

it with

spray and vapour, that it was with much more difficulty I drew my breath.

When in the Genesee, I heard different opinions as to the possibility of penetrating under the Falls. Mr. Morris, of Canadarqua, in two different visits to the Falls, had failed. Capt. Williamson, Mr. L, and others, I understood, had succeeded.

Respecting these latter, they must have either considered the going under a small stream, separated from the main River, as going under the Falls; or, that the air does not at all times rush from the cavity with the same force as during this visit of mine. The difficulty attending this enterprize was corroborated by the information I afterwards received from Mr. Bender living near Mrs. Simcoe's Ladder, and from Lieutenant Crawford, commanding at Chippawa.

Bender, in company with three Settlers, determined as a Sunday's frolic, to go under the Falls. After a few ineffectual attempts, one man very desperately rushed under this liquid arch, instantly fell, and with difficulty crawled back again: this was the only successful instance that Bender was acquainted with.

Lieutenant Crawford had accompanied four different parties to the Falls, and there was always contention who should first succeed in

getting under them; yet, familiarized as he is to the place, he never succeeded himself, nor witnessed success in others.

The same features which distinguish the Great Fall of the Genesee, were repeated here on a larger scale. The rock was caved-in, and consisted of a black rock, as a vast quantity of rock-shiver, like slate-shiver, was accumulated under and near the Falls; yet Table Rock and the bed of the River is limestone, which extends, as I was informed, many hundred miles to the Westward, and as far as the Genesee River to the East. I heard no Southern boundary assigned to it. I observed here, as well as at the Genesee Falls, a Sulphur Spring oozing out of the black rock near the Cataract.

I met with a dead Snake near the Falls, and in scrambling over the rocks, started a Racoon. On my return I met four frolicsome girls, and two men and four boys fishing; so that it appears that the Sunday, even in this remote part of the world, if not kept as a holy day, is at least considered as a holiday. One of the men stood like Patience on a Rock, poizing a spear, and expecting a Sturgeon;-the boys, with far humbler views, were content to catch Pickerel and Cat-fish. Salmon come up to the foot of the Falls.

156

SKETCH OF THE FALLS.

The spray having completely wet me to the skin, I undressed, and whilst my clothes were drying, I refreshed myself by bathing; a fissure of a rock in which the water entered, served as an excellent bathing-house. In another rock I discovered a natural grotto, in which I took shelter from the sun, whose rays were extremely scorching, owing to the reflection of the spray, which at the same time impeded the circulation of the air.

The spray extends to a considerable distance from the Falls; I felt it the moment I descended Mrs. Simcoe's Ladder. Seated in the grotto, I took a sketch of the Falls. From every point of view below the Falls, they present two distinct pictures. The best point for the painter, on the Canada side of the River, would, I think, be from Bender, provided that a screen of pines, hiding the Horseshoe Falls, was cut down. To the spectator there is no view of the Cataract so impressive as that from Table-Rock.

Before I left the foot of the Falls I shuddered when I cast my eyes upwards and beheld the slab on which I had outstretched myself during my first visit, and which so frightfully overhung its base. The ground was strewed with massy fragments of the cliffs which had fallen down, and a little time would probably add this to the number.